BMW wants you to know that things are changing. In fall 2023, the company revealed the Vision Neue Klasse concept car, a fully electric sedan that previews the design and engineering we can expect from a new generation of BMW vehicles. Today, BMW launches the Vision Neue Klasse X, the crossover member of the new EV family. Because even though BMW insists it’s on the brink of a paradigm shift, it’s not about to abandon its popular and profitable “sports activity vehicles.”
The name “Neue Klasse” is loaded with meaning for BMW enthusiasts. The company first coined the moniker, which simply means “new class” in German, in the early 1960s, applying it to an entirely new line of sporty, modernist sedans. The Neue Klasse gave birth to the legendary BMW 2002 and saved the company from the brink of extinction.
The modern BMW is no longer under existential threat as it was in the early 1960s, but the company faces a dramatically changing global auto industry. BMW has been toying with electric and hybrid vehicles for years now, but the new line of Neue Klasse concepts hints at a large-scale overhaul of how a BMW looks, works and drives.
If the Vision Neue Klasse concept sedan is the 3 Series of tomorrow, the Vision Neue Klasse X seen here can be understood as the X3 of tomorrow.
“Together with the BMW Vision Neue Klasse, the BMW Vision Neue Klasse “In this way, we emphasize that the Neue Klasse is much more than just a car or a specific concept; it redefines the BMW brand and, at the same time, will be more BMW than ever.”
That means this premium crossover will need to perform well. BMW brings to this task a new software strategy specific to electric vehicles. In a typical internal combustion vehicle, each system (engine, transmission, stability management, adaptive suspension) is controlled by its own ECU. Adjusting vehicle performance in real time involves a lot of communication between these discrete computers.
BMW says the Neue Klasse platform will eliminate conventional system-specific ECUs in favor of “super-brains” – “high-performance computers working intelligently together on what, until now, was processed separately,” Frank said Weber, member of the board of directors of BMW AG, in a press release. Each super-brain will have computing power up to 10 times greater than that of a conventional computer.
This will allow a super-brain to control every facet of driving dynamics, from torque delivery to traction management to suspension behavior to driving mode adjustments. Another superbrain will manage all aspects of automated driving, from the sensor suite to GPS navigation to steering and braking. BMW promises that this super-brain setup will improve processing power and speed, while simplifying the vehicle’s electronic architecture and reducing the size (and weight) of the hardware required.
“The result will be more dynamic performance, more precision, more efficiency and even more driving pleasure,” Weber said in his statement.
BMW says the Neue Klasse electric vehicles will use an all-new, sixth-generation version of the company’s eDrive propulsion technology. The new round lithium-ion batteries promise 20 percent higher energy density than current prismatic cells, and BMW says Neue Klasse vehicles will use an 800-volt architecture for fast charging, allowing a range of 186 miles with a plug-in of 10 minutes. . Power and performance figures have not been provided for the Vision Neue Klasse X.
The most striking aspect of the Vision Neue Klasse X is its design. Like the Vision Neue Klasse concept sedan, the X’s body contours are refreshingly simple. The grille, which was squashed and widened on the Neue Klasse sedan, stands tall here, a signature that BMW says will distinguish its Sport Activity Vehicle models from its conventional sedans in an all-electric future.
The silhouette is familiar like that of a BMW crossover, but the greenhouse is incredibly airy, thanks in part to delicate proportions: the A and B pillars are tapered at their outer edges, thin and spindly from the outside but flare out until reaching a conventional thickness. . Of course, the Vision Neue Klasse
Inside, the Vision Neue Klasse X embraces a new minimalism, even as it promises a whole new level of integration of perpetually connected telecommunications. Rest in peace, iDrive: With the Neue Klasse, BMW wants you to control the central dashboard screen by touch or via controls on the steering wheel.
A second full-width screen at the base of the windshield shows speed, battery status and other information you’d normally find on the driver’s dashboard, which BMW says will be complemented by a head-mounted display high. Aside from a small collection of physical buttons on the center console, the entire cockpit is essentially buttonless.
Like last year’s Neue Klasse concept sedan, the Injection-molded interior components would be made from recycled maritime plastics. The coral hue of the corduroy upholstery, combined with the enormous panoramic roof and generous greenhouse, gives the X’s interior an airy and welcoming atmosphere.
In person, the Vision Neue Klasse X looks like a halfway point between a luxury concept car and a production-ready machine. The headlights and taillights look like show-car features, and a BMW representative admitted that the production interior will have to have a few more physical controls than what’s on display here. But the door handles and latches, body stampings and daylight apertures all look factory-ready, which had better be, since BMW is promising the first Neue Klasse crossover will come into production. production in 2025.
Whether or not you view this as an entirely new class of vehicle, one thing is certain: BMW’s all-electric future will be defined by SUVs that I bet will look a lot like what you see here.
